Androids were allowed to roam among people and interact with them. However, the capabilities of the robots were not very impressive.
Tesla, founded by Elon Musk, presented Optimus humanoid robots at the same time as the new Robovan car at the Robotaxi Event 2024. Details of the event are reported by Business Today.
Elon Musk promised that Optimus robots will be able to do almost everything. As evidence, Tesla showed a video where humanoids serve drinks to people at the table, pick up parcels left on the porch, water flowers, play with children, wipe the table, and also take out a bag of groceries from the trunk of the car.
“He can be a teacher or babysit your kids. He can walk your dog, mow your lawn, pick up groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks, anything you can think of, he'll do,” — assured Elon Musk.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The businessman made very optimistic predictions about the future of Optimus, calling it the most significant product ever created by Tesla. According to him, the company will produce millions of units, assuming that the widespread adoption of Optimus can improve the economic result by two orders of magnitude and eliminate the poor. The robots are going to be sold at a price of 20,000 to 30,000 dollars, but so far only in the long term.
At the event, a group of Optimus robots came out from behind the scenes to the crowd. However, they only performed the simplest actions: waving hands, holding glasses with ice and handing out small gift bags. One Optimus played rock-paper-scissors with the visitors, while the others danced inside the enclosed gazebo. One of the robots also danced at the request of a female visitor.
The Optimus project was first presented in 2021, and since then it has made significant progress. At the first presentation, it was a man in a robot suit, but now, apparently, they are real and quite autonomous machines. In 2022, Tesla demonstrated the first working prototype, showing the seriousness of its development.
At the beginning of 2024, Tesla showed a video of the Optimus robot folding T-shirts. Spectators noticed that the car was driven by a person in the background, which means that it cannot be called autonomous, as Elon Musk claimed. The billionaire soon admitted that while the robot cannot cope with such a task on its own and is not ready for a commercial launch, it will learn a lot more in the future.